The Minister of Communications and Multimedia (K-KOMM), Tan Sri Annuar Musa has reassured Malaysians that the government is committed to provide free tablets for B40 students under the PerantiSiswa Keluarga Malaysia initiative. During a press conference in Parliament earlier today, Annuar clarified that the distribution of the tablets will be delayed to August 2022 due to tender issues.
The K-KOMM Minister further clarified that an open tender process had been successfully conducted previously but the initial tender was cancelled by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). Hence, another open tender has been initiated and currently in the works, prompting the delay in the implementation of the PerantiSiswa programme.
Annuar then revealed that MOF is expected to decide on the second open tender within a week. Therefore, the timeline for the distribution of the PerantiSiswa tablets has been shifted to August 2022 rather than mid-July as was announced by his ministry previously.
During its first phase, over 100,000 initial units will be distributed to over 200 universities nationwide under the PerantiSiswa initiative, whereby K-KOMM will be negotiating with the education institutions in regards to the distribution process. The programme itself will benefit around 400,000 students in the B40 category.
During the same press conference, the K-KOMM Minister also announced that it will reopen the second phase of application starting from 1 August to 30 September 2022. Furthermore, the government has also agreed to expand the programme to B40 students studying in institutions including Institute of Teacher Educations (IPG) and Matriculation Centres under the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
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